darcshadow

You calibrate the software to the cutter. For example, the software tells the plotter to move 1 inch, the plotter moves 1.1 inches. so the software needs to be adjusted to account for that extra 10% travel. Could just be the photo, but those squares look slightly taller than wide to me.

yeah, that's true, solenoid being wired "backwards" wouldn't actually effect anything. The signal going to the solenoid is inverted, that could be driver, software, or motherboard issue.

Is it cutting random, or is it cutting exactly the same every time for a given design. If it's cutting exactly what you have in the image above then your problem is that it's not lifting the blade when cutting and you likely have a fried Z-chip.

You have to account for two distortions, and the image will always look a little off if you're not looking at it exactly straight on. First you need to account for the curve of the glass. Since glass is an inverted truncated cone use the diameter of the cup about there the middle of the design would be. Easiest way to do that would be to take a string and wrap it around the cup where the design will be, that will get you the circumference. Divide that number by Pi, 3.14, to get the Diameter to use in the equation below. H = h/w*D*sin(w/D) h - height of image w - width of image D - diameter of cup H - new height for image And here is a discussion on how to account for the tapered shape of the glass which includes a spreadsheet to do the math so you can create a template. Even with all this, there's still can be a bit of experimentation to get the design perfect but I've been pretty pleased with my results.

Yeah, I didn't mean servo, I intended to say solenoid.

Yeah, sounds like a simple case of the + and - on the servo are backwards.

SVGs do have a DPI setting in them that can effect the size/resolution of the image when viewed in a web viewer but it shouldn't make any difference when going between vector programs. 96dpi is suppose to be the CSS standard.

Regarding the weed lines, I think what you're suggesting will work. Draw your line and weld it like you say then switch to wireframe view to see if you get the results you are looking for.

Might try doing a select all and un-group. I've had groupings cause weird things like that some times.

What does the results look like if you cut a square? I suspect it will come out slightly off in one direction? My guess is you need to calibrate the cutter and software. I have not used Flexisign but it should have an option to calibrate the cutter someplace.

Everyone knows the correct part of the road to drive down is in the middle right down the line, that's what the line is there for. Jeeze.

How wide is the graphic? The vinyl drifting side to side is not an issue so long as the graphic fits within the drift. Naturally you want the vinyl as straight as possible but so long as the cut doesn't go off the edge you're good. The bad kind of drift is not so much a result of the vinyl not being straight, it's from the vinyl slipping, or the machine taking an extra step here or there causing it not to come back to the exact spot it started. I'm assuming your graphic is just horizontal lines, so you really shouldn't have any problems, the vinyl will only be moving a small bit at a time. The real drift problem comes when you want to make a single cut that is say 6' long.

The image is what the cutter is going to do. The dotted lines are moves the cutter makes while the blade is raised. The red is moves the cutter makes when the blade is down. Not sure why it would be moving to the top corner before finishing though.

What are you asking? If the part is soldered on you're going to have to desolder it and solder in the new one. If you're asking for a way to solder without an iron...you could try staring at it really hard. I don't have a Seiki, can you post a photo of the new part and the installed part? I'm a bit surprised there's not a connector. Also, FYI, blade holder is the plastic/metal piece that the blade goes in. I believe you are talking about the cutting head/carriage.

Have you cut this design in the past? That looks like there is a lot of small cuts. The glitter I've cut was a good bit thicker than normal HTV and a royal pain to work with. Only advise I can offer is to follow Mz Skeeter's instructions for setting blade depth and go from there. I know you said you tried adjusting the blade up and down, but that says to me you didn't actually set it correctly, just guessed. Get the blade set correctly then further troubleshooting can be explored.

As a MH owner, I can say that what you are planning can be done with a MH, but if I had it do over again, I'd step up to the SC2 or better. If cost is a big factor, go with the 28" version. UScutter has a 28" SC with stand and catch basket for $450. The 38" MH with stand and no catch basket is about $380, so for only $70 you get a better cutter and a catch basket. And if you're doing long deigns the catch basket will come in very handy as well as the superior tracking of the SC2. I also recommend the 28" cutter because 24" rolls are pretty common, the next size up is only 30" and while still pretty common, is that extra 6" really worth it? Most large designs can be broken down to smaller sections which can also make install easier.

I don't know that tiling does anything to the actual image, I believe it does it all at cut time where it will break the image up to fit on your vinyl. If you actually want to cut the image in half, the easiest way in my opinion, Duplicate the image then draw a box that covers half of the image. Duplicate that box. Then punch one box through the image and do an intersection of the other box and other image. I don't remember the exact terms for doing this, I'm away from VM right now. When I get a chance later I'll look them up.

I've never actually done it and don't exactly know how VM works but basically, you load the material with the image printed, and tell VM you want to contour cut. It should then prompt you to move the cutter head to the the registration marks and then start cutting. Again, I've never actually done it, but there's no reason it shouldn't be possible, maybe just not as easy as with other cutters. When I get some time I might play around with it a little and see what I can do.

I've never seen schematics, but the systems are pretty simple, once you have it opened up it should be pretty obvious where the motors are getting their power from.

When I used it as a paint mask it was just a craft project but worked well.

Depends on what you want to do with it. I've used Greenstart, Oracal 631, and Oracal 651 when sand blasting cups. I've also used 651 as a paint mask. Never tried to make a reusable stencil but that would require a thicker material and likely a carrier mat to cut it, if the cutter can even cut through the material.

My next suggestion would be try some different software. SignBlazer is free and works with the MH, there are links to it on the forum, a quick search should find one for you. You could also try Inkscape. It is a design program does have the ability to cut at a very simplistic level. See if either of those behave differently. One other question, what OS on your computer are you running?

Happy to help.

Piecing app tape together to cover the entire design is not recommended, but if you can get it so the seams are not over the vinyl it can be made to work. The problem with the seam being on the vinyl is you are more likely to get bubbles along the seam.

Does that software give you the option to change the data Bits, Stop Bits, and Parity Option? I'll need to double check what they should be set to when I get home if they are something you can change. Do you have Flow Control set to Hardware? Have you opened the cutter and looked at the USB connector? If it was stressed enough to break off it may have damaged more than just the USB connection.